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Dearborn independent. [volume] (Dearborn, Mich.) 1901-1927, December 27, 1919, Image 10

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Persistent link: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/2013218776/1919-12-27/ed-1/seq-10/

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10
Mfc o fltwte Everywhere
THREE Mints, id Wee emeralds in wrinkled blue
enamel, guard the gateway oi the La. ibbcan Sea
Columbus, with an entire hemisphere dead aneaa
of him, could not miss them. For the mariner these
islands, Saints Thomas, John and roix-t he la
better known today as Santa Crtu are on the rout.
to ever) where.'- .
Either of them might well bear one oi those ow
fashioned crossarmed guide-posts, reading :
New York. 1,400 M
New Orleans 1,800 M
Europe, 3,400 M.
Panama, 1.-50 M.
Rio lie Janeiro, 3,000 af
These three ilka dots of land, known to scataring
nun tin- world over as the "Road House of the South
Vtlantic1 which a fen years ago became island pos
sessions of the United States, have a total area ol ess
tila three- boroughs of New York City, with less
population than East Orange, X. .'
In reality these three small islands are more than a
marine crossroads stopping-place. They rise tar above
the dignity i f a 'five corners." thoe ganglions pi Mgn
w iv which once directed the driver ol the faithful old
mare and now guide the speeding autoist on ins way
to the nearest hospice and gas station. 1 hroughout tour
centuries they have been the most frequently visited
islands of the tropical Atlantic.
Thirty-three thousand souls dwell in more or less
apathy on these islands. Nine-tenths ol them arc
natives, black. They have plenty ol room at that,
about 240 to the square mile. Only one island has
good shipping facilities. St. Thomas has a splendid
harbor. The others have no harbor worthy the name,
but consist of exceedingly fertile farming lands.
Our flag 18 the fifth that has fluttered to the breee
from the rocky summit of St. Thomas. These were:
tirst the flag of Spain, planted by Columbus; then the
Dutch, English and Danish flags. There have been
various Other Bags in the islands, all with a black
ground and white skull and crossbones rampant, as
they served a a refuge and headquarters tor many a
famous pirate crew.
Poor Columbus, who never saw the great comment
history says he "discovered." opened the door to it
through these islands and they are as far w St as he
ever sailed. It wa on Saint Ursula's Day, 14(3. on
his second voyage, that Genoese, his commander, called
his attention to a rocky highland and steered his little
vessel into the great and iaf landlocked harbor, said
to be the I nest harbor in all the world.
From the natives Columbus learned that there were
"many islands"' about. In honor of Saint Ursula and
not to the Virgin Mary as many writers have asserted.
Columbus named them the "Virgin Isles." Then he
planted the flag of Castle and Leon.
"Here." quoth Christopher or perhaps some his
torian put the words in his mouth '"is a cluster of
jewels to partly repay Her Majesty for those she
pawned to buy my ships1
For a long time nearly two centuries the vicinity
of these islands was not a healthy place for traders.
Ordinarily they gave the islands a wide berth, but
when pressed too hard by the pirates they have been
known to sail full speed into the St. Thomas harbor,
blazing bravely away from their stern guns and being
By JUDSON D. STUART
M,- ... hold the iiratc oft at the narrow hwbor
entrance. , . ,, il l. thu
C aptain Kidd buried his treasure all ovei tl esc
islands- according to the stonei ol he na ttves-jus
a he buried gold everywhere else WMOmBto
midon in Nova Scotia and the mouth of the Amason.
Captains Lafitte and Kirby and a score ol otfcei ' m
famous old pirates actually did make then- headquarters
on St Thomas island as well as the tar -famed rrench
brothers, om known as "Blackbcard and the othei
as "Bluebeard." . ,
The natives Still believe this C aptaiu 1 rem h. known
as "Bluebeard," is the same one in the fairy-story book
who o neatly decapitated his wives and hung th heads
in a row. "Bluebeard's Castle' still stands in M,
Thomas; it is now the summer home ol a Brooklyn,
X Y clergyman. In fad it was built as a fori by the
early Danish, but the natives iay that the hollow sound
that comes when your boot heels hit the tiled floors i-
caused by the cavern below where Bluebeard SO neatly
"divorced" his wives.
After Columbus had marked three little dots on
his quaint old map and nonchalantly given them to
Queen Isabella he doubtless forgot all about them. He
had Other worries. The Spanish established a few
colonies there but were too busy for a while to bother
with the islands after tiny failed to find gold nuggets
cropping OUt of every ledge. They were too busy in
Mexico and Peru cajoling gold and c ins out ol the
poor lncas with red hot pokers to bother to settle the
three saints. But at the tune the Pilgrim Fathers were
laving the foundation for that merry quip about first
falling upon their knees and then upon the aborigines,
the venturesome Dutch came along and made settle
ments on all three islands. Tiny might have been
there now but for a tempting bargain all Man
hattan for 5J4 so they deported to found New Am
sterdam. For many years after that the three saints had a
rather hard time of it. as it was impossible to make
certain who owned them. The Spanish established
settlements and were driven out by the English, some
Frenchmen came along and moved the English out.
Then, in 1671, a party of Danes occupied St. Thomas.
Nearly fifty years later they extended their settlements
to St John and in 1733 they bought Santa CrU2 from
the French.
There is one Wot on the Santa CrUZ escutcheon, the
insurrection of 1878. There are nine blacks to one
white on this island. In KMX slaver) had been abol
ished, but the lot of blacks was nt greatly improved
as they were forced to sign a contract each October to
work a year for ten cents a day in money and ten cents
worth of food per day. For thirty years this wa nt on,
and the blacks, who got their freedom three years be
fore the Danish Crown intended to grant it because
of a threatened insurrection, remembered th.it success.
On this October not a contract was itgned. The plant
ers and tradesmen were frightened and shuttered their
windows and hid. first sending a swift sloop to St.
Thomas for the soldiers. Dancing the weird steps
their forefathers knew and singing tin wild chants of
Africa, the blacks marched about, demanding twenty
rnti , ,11N Singing is thirsts work BO they broke imo
V nun shop, rhe combination oi anry black men
nd Santa trui rum is had. By n.ghttall the great
warehouse was burned, cane fields were going ,p in
smoke, and halt the houses Oil the island were in
dames. . , . ,
n the morning a planter rode bravely int., t wn,
forgetting that these once-slaves had tasted power,
Maddened D) the loSI ol hll estate he rode stl light
int0 tin mob, lashing right and left with ln whip,
For a moment the habit ol generations of slavery
c nised the blacks to slink back, then one man. his cheek
laid open by the lash, leaped at the bridle, another :ed
the stirrup. In an instant it was oyer a swirl ol half
naked black forms, the piercing shriek of a dying horst,
the awful civ. half scream, half curse of a human in
tin- throes of a fearful death, and it was done. S ized
with panic the mob tied. A bundle of red-stained,
muddled clothes la) in a sickening heap on the cobble
stones. . ,ii i ,
There is no record ol the deeds done that da the
dene smoke veiled the things that followed St! ccrj
enough thai red stain slowlj thickening on tin ,i,it..
stones marked the spot where the only white victim
till. Satiated with their wild orgy, there was a nt
and then the prayed-for trOOpS arrived only 200 of
them. What could they do against m thou.sai d lav
ages? Vesterda) they would have been torn in pieces
in an instant, but reaction had set in. Frightened at
their own daring the blacks tied before the s,,:'lUTSt
Swiftly and relentlessl) the) were hunted down, and
no man captured was allowed to live. I here is no
record of the number that satisfied, with their lives,
the thirst of vengeance, but tales are told oi reat
heaps 1 1 black forms out in the smouldering cane elds
and later buried with scant ceremony and. pr. tly,
under sanction of the law. six hundred figures writhed
helplessly in air. suspended from rude gibbets, sil
houetted against the sunset.
All that is history history not officially mentioned in
any books. Today the blacks are well contented. They
were glad to be conn citizens of Uncle Sam.
et to Gibraltar, declare military authorities, the
Danish West Indies form the most strategic spot in
the world. They guard the entrance to the Caribbean,
the eastern gate to the Tan. una ( anal and one oi tin
most trawled of ocean highways. It has bee- said
that if we had owned these islands at the time we came
to blo with Spain we would have occupied l'orto
Rico within a week, stopped Cevera before he got to
Martini ue and saved at least $10,000,000, This mayor
may not be true: it is difficult to prove.
The harbor at St. Thomas, tin Road HoUS4 T the
South Atlantic."' the commercial center ol the Antilles,
;s a national wonder, with from thirty to ntnet) feet
of clear water, girt round three-f urths of the circle
with mountain and towering headlands, while tin nar
row channel is guarded with treacherous reels and
shoals. Fortified it would be practically impregnable.
The climate is by no means torrid. Being s small
and so well out at sea, breezes sweep every part oi the
islands and the nights are delightfully cool. B It, to
be absolutely fair about it. sometimes those "breezes
de velop int tornadoes that sweep all the "trash' houses
(native huts), and half tin frame buildings ofl the
island. These do not occur very often; the last one
was in 1SS.
Washington, D. L.. Dec. 1919.
HERE may be mistakes made. Some
times thinus may be done wrong, while
the officers of the government do all
i to prevent mistakes: but I big of you.
ens of this ureat Republic, not to let
be carried off from the great work
e befpre us. The struggle is too large
b diverted from it by any small
R le up to the dignity of a generation
worth) of a free government and we
Play the Game
The people generally are apprehensive.
Tin lacrifices made during the war. the reaction
from the war strain, heavy taxation, labor troubks.
Bolshevism, the Mexican crisis, the cost of living, the
defeat of the League of Nations Covenant, all these
have tei ded to undermine the confidence of the people
in what the future holds for them.
The headlines and contents of the newspapers tell
of little b u strife international, national, political, and
social. The quarrels of nations continue, and so do the
quarrels of classes. All is discontent seemingly.
More than a year has passed since the guns on
the Western Front have stilled their sullen roar, yet
there is not peace. We were told, we believed, that
when the Great War ended, war for all time would
end, yet today we are confronted with dispatches that
till of bitter fighting in all quarters of the globe. And
we cannot help but wonder whether the hand of Mars
is never to release its clutch on our peoples.
The citizen of the United States who sought to end
the intolerable conditions that the ghouls of empire
previously had created, today lies on a sick bed in the
White House at Washington, broken down by the ef
fort he put forth. And the instrument he caiisrd to be
created that a new and better world might come into
bi ing has for the present at least been cast aside by a
little band of u ilful men.
There has been an unhappy squabble with the head
of a neighboring nation, and the cloud of war is not
far down the horizon.
The cost of living has not CORN down, despite
promises ol government to tin contrary; government
promises in tins ease can be of no avail.
Tin red fangs .f Bolshevism have been striking
with deadl) effect. The self styled ambassador of the
Soviet Russia has been at work in our midst, un
hampered until very recently. He has admitted his
purpose here, and that purpose is not for tin good Gf
American institutions and American idealf
Such is the dark outlook on things generally that
Mr. Average Citizen, the Public of the newspaper car
toons and the newspaper editorials, holds today. He
is frankly dubious. The little savings of other years
perhaps have been taken up by the greater cost of the
necessities of life: his wages are not commensurate
with his living expenses. All in all. he has begun to
believe that "everyone is getting ahead but htm?
Hi s angry; he's in a nasty, fighting mood, perhaps
not without cause, and yet
It is held in Washington that tin country is on n
absolutely sound financial basis. The financial situa
tion is kept well in hand by the Federal Reserve Board.
There is plenty of money for the expansion of legitimate
enterprise, and legitimate enterprise is going ahead with
a confidence that speaks well for the future.
The labor situation is due without doubt to tin war
strain and the increased cost of living. Wise counsel
already is asserting itself, not without effect, in the
gatherings of the leaden of Labor. The sanity of the
conservatives is not going to ! swept away by the
arguments of the radicals.
The disturbance, both in labor and industry, has
been on the surface, it is declared by those whose 'b
ness it is to watch such situations
The Bolshevist unrest that at times has led p, ,i,s
order, the waving of red flags, tin shooting down ol
some, is being curbed through government agencies
backed by the temper of tin- mass ,,t the peoplt which
demands drastic regulation of su h an element.
Although certain interests continue th.it demand
that this country become embroiled wil
ico, yet the sentiment in Congress, an
the streets, and m the meeting-places, is I
war. t one tune recently it was felt th
tilities might come; yet. as far as the inn
future is concerned, the likelihood oi
vasion of Mexico is little. In this tin
dent has demonstrated his capability ol
ling the situation.
The defeat of the League of Nati"
enant is believed by man) lure to be b
porary. There were scores of men pi
affairs of the bah. Republic which w
Revolution of 77 who held that th
r . i i ,
"i Hie I tilted Mates was a memn
Me
upon
iot for
bot-
k .hate
an in
1 'resi-hand-
LOV-
tcm
m inert
Con-
; all
ertion.
in the
in the
stitution
the lih-rti's gained through the long months i
gle with Ureal Britain. Yet there are lev.
bold enough s rioiixk t.i iimIm mu4i :n .i
The Constitution was. as wc know, adopted There
wen changes mad. in its phraseology. So there
will be changes made in the phraseology of th Cove
nm of the League of Nations. It could not he ex
pectcd that the first draft of a document of the w.rid
importance t the League of Nations would be perfect
I he great curse of partisanship in American pon
tics has done much to slow up the reconstruction Jf
forts iu this country. Of that there can be no doutt
Yet wc ai hearing a new note in Congress. Its mem
bers knovs that the tune has come to ease the burden
W the people in -s, ,-tnuch as it is humanh p -sible.
We are hearing members of Congress confessing 011
the floors of thru- respective chambers that an econotnj
of administration is imperative; that the carelessnesi
oi the past must be done away w ith And the) ' Dt'
done away with m a large measure at least,
res, there have b n mUta
I he mistake s hae cost us mm h in
money
l'erhans vrui .......
troubles: perhaps you have not sought tin- brifW
not ' 1 N has been sounded t
it is solely a question of playing the Kametf
being an American n.,tn..r ,,,i ;s the p"l'i,iai,
.iv X .1 I , i.ii'i,
ng h.is it 'v., nil k .M.f..j v., ii eer
wj you haw been teelin.
Ill
patience,
imtn dw
had
U It the
Hi.
ves
th.
words in (notation marks
. M.S in l0,t0 III. II ! .
ol tins irtk:c arc those of Abraham Line
the bi-
uln-

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